The sequel and companion volume to C.A. Bayly's ground-breakingThe Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914, this wide-ranging and sophisticated study explores global history since the First World War, offering a coherent, comparative overview of developments in politics, economics, and society at large.

Part of The Blackwell History of the World Series

The goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.

C.A. Bayly (1945-2015) was Vere Harmsworth Professor of History in the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, from 1970 until 2015, and a leader in the field of global history. He won the Wolfson History Prize for his distinguished contribution to History in 2004 and received a knighthood for his services to the profession in 2007. Among his other significant works areThe Birth of the Modern World: Global Connections and Comparisons, 1780-1914 (Wiley, 2004);Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (2005) andForgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia (2007), both co-authored with T.N. Harper; andRecovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism Empire (2012). He was a fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature, and the Academia Europaea.In 2016 he became the first posthumous recipient of the Toynbee Prize.

List of Figures and Photo Credits vii

Series Editors Preface ix

Christopher Bayly and the Making of World History xiii

Preface xix

Introduction 1

1 The World Crisis,c.19001930: Europe and the Middle East 12

2 The World Crisis,c.19001930: Africa, Asia and Beyond 29

3 Authoritarianism and Dictatorship Worldwide,c.19001950 49

4 Democracies and Their Discontents,c.19001950 67

5 The Depression: State Intervention and Popular Resistance 84

6 The Second World War and its Consequences 96

7 Peripheral Conicts and the End of Old Regimes,c.19451955 118

8 Americas Hegemony and Colonialisms Finale, mid-1950s to 1970s 139

9 The Tipping Point: World Politics and the Shock of the Long 1980s 162

10 The Expansion of Human Knowledge: The Twentieth-Century Person and Society 179

11 The Self and Human Society 194

12 Arts, Literature and Entertainment: Crisis and Recovery 215

13 Religion: Contestation and Revival 231

14 A Century of Killing and a Century of Crime 247

15 Internationalism and Transnationalism in Theory and Practice 263

16 The Shadow of Empire in the Modern World 270

17 The Pressure of People 287

18 Between Two Centuries: Economic Liberalisation and Political Fragmentation,c.1991 to 2015 298

Conclusion: Periods and Prophecy 323

Notes 333

Bibliography 363

Index 379